Contingency plans have been drawn up to move World Cup rugby matches away from Christchurch this autumn, with Australia a potential destination. Officials from the International Rugby Board were in New Zealand last week to have discussions with tournament organisers and among the topics was what would happen if the country's second city suffered another earthquake.

The IRB said on Tuesday that it would not be commenting on the World Cup when the death toll from the second earthquake to hit Christchurch in six months was still rising. The city is due to host five World Cup group matches, two involving England and one Scotland, as well as two quarter-finals involving countries from groups containing New Zealand and England.

There were no reports of structural damage to AMI Stadium, which suffered cracks in the previous earthquake, but it will be some time before the extent of the damage to hotels, restaurants, roads and other infrastructure is known.

New Zealand is expecting 85,000 supporters from overseas to watch the World Cup, and hotels are booked to capacity. The IRB's preference is to keep the seven matches scheduled for Christchurch in the city but it will next week start taking soundings from the New Zealand Rugby Union, business leaders and travel operators.

One contingency plan is to move the games to other parts of the country but Australia has been put on alert if that proves logistically impossible. The host union, which is budgeting for a loss, has match tickets as its sole means of income. The AMI Stadium is the second biggest in the country and taking some matches across the Tasman Sea may prove to be the best solution because New Zealand would get all the proceeds except for the costs of staging the games.

Australia are due to play Italy and Russia in Christchurch but the Wallabies are unlikely be given home advantage if a new venue had to be found, meaning their games would be moved to another city in New Zealand, most likely Auckland.

Their coach, Robbie Deans, is from Christchurch and he said: "This is tragic. People have lost their lives. It is hard to know how it could affect the World Cup, but that does not warrant thinking about at the moment. It is not a priority."

Deans's mother and sister survived the earthquake, as did relatives of Wales's New Zealand-born coach, Warren Gatland, who said: "Our thoughts are with the people of Christchurch. I had a text at 2am, turned the television on and watched it for three hours. It is a very close community, much like Wales, and people here will sympathise with the devastation that has been wrought."

The IRB said the tournament would take a back seat while the search for survivors continues and that the focus had to be the emergency response. "It is way too early to be thinking about what this means for the World Cup," said Mike Jaspers, communications manager for the tournament. "We are just thinking about friends, relatives and all the people who have been affected by this."